my how time flies

well it certainly has been a long time since I blogged. So much has happened since then that I dont even know where to begin....

I guess at the beginning, so here's the story

I went to Cambodia to volunteer in November last year and my placement was at a little community School called SHCC (http://www.shcccambodia.org/) and it was perfect. Everything about it was what I had always dreamt of doing, it was like someone had created a life for me and it was just waiting for me to come and find it and I finally did.

From Day 1 I felt at home there, I felt like I belonged in this little community outside of Siem Reap with these beautiful children and kind hearted people. So I got to work helping the Director of the centre Sambath Chourn to build his dream that he had been working on tirelessly for three years. I was in my element loving every day of being there, not wanting it to ever end yet looking forward to the next day to see what it would bring me.

I had the best four weeks of my life in Siem Reap and I fell in love with the place and the people especially one person, Sambath. I didnt even realize what was happening but we spent all day every day together at the school and worked closely and I just thought he was appreciative of the work I was doing for him but then he started to come to the lodge after work and spending time with me outside of school and outside of work and we got to know each other as people and just like everything else it felt so right.

We got close in the time that I was there and I really didnt want to say goodbye but finally the day came when I had to say goodbye and it broke my heart. I will never in my life forget the hug he gave me as we said our goodbyes for the last time, it was a hug that was filled with despair and desperation as he squeezed me so tight into his body as if he was trying to keep something of me on him it was heart breaking.

Since I have come home to Australia, which now no longer feels like home but more like a hell I must endure to get back to my true home Siem Reap, all I have thought about is Siem Reap and Sambath. All I want is to be with him, to be back in that life that felt so right and normal.

So thats the story in a nutshell, thats how I got to here. So now I am on a new journey, a journey that is both exciting and scary. A journey that asks me to give everything to get everything, a journey filled with unknowns and risks yet great joys and fantastic moments of truth and honesty and caring.

So we will see, you never know!

Jess